ADW News

With the Election Too Close to Call, What Happens Next?

ADW News

November 7, 2018

With the majority of the precincts reporting, Brian Kemp maintained about a 69,000 vote lead over Stacey Abrams which translates to 50.42 percent for Brian Kemp versus 48.64 percent for Stacey Abrams, according to reports from 11-Alive. Libertarian candidate Ted Metz had just under one percentage point or about 36,500 votes.
In Georgia, to be declared a winner of an election, a candidate must receive more than half of all votes cast — otherwise, a runoff must be held.
The votes must first be certified — which would not come until next week. Ordinarily, the secretary of state’s office certifies elections during the week following an election. This gives time for absentee ballots to come in and for any paper ballots to be included in the total.
If the two candidates are within one percent of each other, either candidate may request a recount.
The electronic votes are stored on memory cards and they would be re-uploaded to a server and sent to the secretary of state’s office. Following that process, the absentee or paper ballots would be rescanned — a process that would take only a few hours.
If there will be a runoff election, it would place on Tuesday, December 4 between the top vote-getters, Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams.
Voters who registered before the October 9 deadline — even if they did not vote in the general election on Tuesday — would be eligible to vote in the runoff election.